GEORGIA STATE HEAD COACH TRENT MILES:

“My hat's off to Troy and [head] coach [Larry] Blakeney. He is the dean of coaches in this conference and that was a well deserved victory. Troy is an excellent football team and offensively it showed. You make one mistake at the end, they go down the field and cash it in to put the nail in the coffin on us. Hat's off to them, they are going to win a lot of football games. They have an excellent quarterback and receivers and a great scheme.

I thought our team battled and proved that they belong in this conference, and I am very happy with the way they played. I am not happy with the result obviously, everyone is disappointed with losing. This was an FCS football team a year ago that won one game. We jumped into FBS and went toe-to-toe for 56 minutes and had every opportunity to win the game. We proved that this is going to be a very good conference for us, and we will be able to compete.

Toward the end of the game, we were playing with some young men who had not played all year. Troy deserved to win the football game and they deserve every bit of the credit. Our team proved that it belongs and we are going to win some games. Now if we can go to 60 minutes instead of 56 minutes, we will win some football games. Look at all the great things that were done today. Yes, you could say that we did not run the ball very much, but with what we were doing throwing the football, who wasn't excited to watch that college football game today. That was a really good college football game, and we just happened to come up on the short end of the stick. I told the team, the hardest thing there is to do is to get over the hump when you haven't been winning. When you jump up to the FBS level it makes it even harder, and these kids are coming so close because of the hard work and focus they are putting in everyday. They are getting better and better and it is showing on the field. We are going to win some games, and it is going to happen sooner then people think. Last I knew, we were 17.5 point underdogs and we did not play like that. We played like we belong in this conference and we have players that can make plays. We make mistakes at inopportune times and that is part of the process of learning how to win.”

On the blocked punt:

“We called for a blocked punt. I thought our guys did a great job of executing it. Our team showed that they belong today. We quit kicking it short because we realized that we can cover these guys. Again, Troy is an excellent team with an excellent coach. I go back a long ways with coach Blakeney and I have nothing but great respect for him.”

On the touchdown pass following the blocked punt:

“We are not into statements; we are trying to score touchdowns. When we get really good we will worry about making statements, but until then we are just trying to score touchdowns.”

On how the team executed:

“I thought the team executed well. Obviously there are going to be things that Troy did well that made it look like we did not execute. There we things we did that made it look like Troy did not execute but for the most part we did really well. There were probably five or six plays that determined the outcome, but we executed well on 70 of them. We are getting better, we are getting the chance to prove that we belong and now we just need to win.”

On the impact of penalties late in the game:

“Anytime you are in third and long it is very difficult. There are not a lot of good play calls for third and 13. Both teams ran a lot of plays tonight. Anytime you go almost four hours, guys get tired. Anytime you are in third and long it makes it very difficult and it is going to affect the play calling. The defense can do whatever they want in that situation. They can drop eight, drop nine or blitz to get the ball out the quarterback's hand. It is a very difficult situation, but the key is to stay out of those.”

Injuries to the offensive line:

“Cade Yates hurt his ankle and was out for the rest of the game. Ulrick John got injured at the end, and Tim Wynn sprained his ankle. I am very pleased with the guys who have not played a lot but were able to go in and battle like they did.”

On the defense being on the field for 102 plays:

102 plays and that does not include special teams. Our training staff did a great job of keeping them hydrated and getting guys back out on the field. If you are not very deep, and you have to play over 100 snaps during the game, cramping is a natural thing that is going to happen.”

On Ronnie Bell's performance:

“I thought he played well. There is one throw that he wishes he had back at the very end.”

On the lack of running game:

“If you cannot run the ball consistently that is going to put extra pressure on the quarterback. I thought Jonathan Jean-Bart he ran the ball well.”

QB RONNIE BELL

On the team's confidence level:
We fought hard. We fought all four quarters, except the last five minutes, and that's where the tables turned. If we fight hard like that every game, we will come out with a victory.

On playing in the Sun Belt Conference:
Coming from FCS, it gives us tons of confidence. To play Division I ball is to be talented, and we just have to come out there and show everyone what we can do.

On the offensive protection:
No, I didn't feel rushed. It was more that a lot of our guys went down and a lot of back-ups had to step up when they were called. Overall, they did a good job and I'll give credit to them. Their [Troy] offense pushed us back a few times, but then again so did our offense. In the end, everybody has to be ready.

On the change of protection schemes in the second half:
Yes we did. We went back to the protection scheme that we used on Alabama. We allowed one tight end to stay in the game for extra protection. It worked sometimes, but sometimes it didn't.

On Albert Wilson:
Yes, he is a very good playmaker, but we have more options when it comes to wide receivers such as Kelton Hill and Robert Davis. But yes, Albert Wilson was very explosive today. When he gets the ball, he makes things happen.

LB TARRIS BATISTE

Coach Miles refers to the rock. Each game we have to break off a bit of the rock, and eventually the rock will break. Today we thought that rock was going to break. Things didn't hash out the way we planned. We didn't make plays when we should have but eventually we will. That's when we'll start winning. We have to start and learn from our mistakes on Monday. We have to limit as many mistakes as we can, and just become a better football team.

ON keeping the morale:
It's very hard to continue pushing when you are 0-6, but you just have to believe. We have a lot of seniors who don't want to go “0 and something “, and then we have juniors and sophomores who want this as something to build on. Losers hang their heads down. We are not losers. We have been losing, but we are not losers.

Troy Head Coach Larry Blakeney

Opening  Statement

“I knew, I knew, I knew. I told the offensive team last week I could see one of the Atlanta writers writing a headline saying 'The Trojans sleep walk, Georgia State wins first Sun Belt Game.' I knew this guy coaching this team. I met him in a couple of meetings and followed him. They do some good things and make some good plays and number two is [a great player]. He does a lot of things with football and well. But, Trent Miles will get it done here if gets a fair chance. He is a good football coach and he recruits good, and he knows what he is doing.  So, we won out today and I was proud of it. I felt like it was going to be one of those days, and we have to get where we cover better, and man coverage, too. You can't make the man wait back there all day to cover. I'm proud of the win!  It's a great venue, this dome is beautiful, and it's great to be able to bring the kids. Our kids really enjoyed the experience here. We came down Friday to get the field we just wanted our players to get a little practice, catch a few balls, adjust to the lighting, and we stopped in and we got to see. Again, proud of the win.

On being a fourth quarter team…
“We try to coach that. It's kind of hard to simulate because you never know how tired you are going to be. You never know how far behind you will be, or how much you have to catch up by.”

On the play Wild Fox
“That play was our favorite play tonight."

On Trojans Defense…
“We will find some mistakes. The penalties were way too many. We had 98 yards of penalties.  I didn't really think it was a badly-officiated game. It's just sometimes those flares come going down the sideline.  But,  I guess you have to call some, but I'm even more happy when they don't make penalties.